Next week IDW kicks off "Star Trek: Captain’s Log", a new periodic series of comics with each issue focusing on a different (but lesser-seen) Trek captain. The first issue is devoted to Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior and we have an exclusive five page preview below.

PREVIEW: Star Trek Captain’s Log: Sulu Written by Scott & David Tipton, art by David Messina.

Synopsis:

Introducing a brand-new series focusing on some of the most famous Captains in Starfleet history!

In the debut issue, Captain Hikaru Sulu, still new to the command of the U.S.S. Excelsior, finds himself once again face to face with one of the Federation’s most dangerous and mysterious adversaries-the Tholians! From the creative team behind Spock: Reflections!.

The "Captain’s Log" series will continue through 2010, but is not monthly. It will run like the Alien Spotlight series, each focusing on a new captain, with a different writer. Look for an update soon with the confirmed list of captains for the rest of the series.

They drew Sulu too young looking. He looks like he should have during TOS. Then again, sometimes it looks like George Takei stopped aging after Star Trek II. Looks like it could be an interesting story, though. The first officer is annoying, though.

This looks cool. It’s great that they’re still using George Takei’s likeness, but somewhere down the line in future merchandise, I imagine they’ll switch over to Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldana, Cho & Yelchin.

they should do a captain Scott issue, and a captian riker issue,
u know whats funny is that the reason why takei hates on shatner so much even today is in large part to paramount not wanting to do a capt sulu series that Takei kept trying to talk the studio into doing for years.

I wonder why though everyone, including the new movie writers, place so much emphasis on Sulu’s fencing skills though? OK, that Naked Time scene is iconic afterall, but Sulu’s also an expert with guns, physics, flying and martial arts.

#9: “This looks cool. It’s great that they’re still using George Takei’s likeness, but somewhere down the line in future merchandise, I imagine they’ll switch over to Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldana, Cho & Yelchin.”

Maybe … but there’s a pretty good chance that in, say, three or four movies from now, any (or even all) of those actors will have moved on from the roles, either because their career paths then lie elsewhere, or because the Supreme Court finishes three films, calls it good enough, and hands off the franchise to some other party who decides to explore a different part of the Star Trek universe than one with Captain Kirk in it.

If that happens, then the likeness of Pine, Quinto, etc will only be appropriate or marketable for titles _specifically_ set in the Red Matter Timeline. If, on the other hand, the Red Matter Timeline is continued with re-re-cast characters, then comic book artists may even start drawing “generic” versions of the characters, designed to evoke past actors as a group without specifically depicting just one.

The odds of this particular Enterprise crew _replacing_ the original as marketable faces for the long haul is, really, vanishingly small. For that to happen, the Red Matter Universe would have to log some serious hours under its belt (currently it’s just two hours against god-and-certain-fanatic-fans-knows-how-many), remain popular with a very broad (not just the faithful) audience, _and_ keep these exact same actors in the role. What do you think the odds are? (and that’s a sincere, open question)

#18–I think they’re focusing of Sulu’s fencing skills because its foreshadowing Picard’s interest in fencing, and also because John Cho’s version of Sulu mentioned fencing in last year’s blockbuster film.

“This looks cool. It’s great that they’re still using George Takei’s likeness, but somewhere down the line in future merchandise, I imagine they’ll switch over to Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldana, Cho & Yelchin.”

Give the comic credit. When they’re fencing, they’re actually fencing. Trek09’s Sulu? He says he specializes in fencing, but what we saw him doing was flat out NOT FENCING! Some swords use in fencing are Foils, Epees and Sabres. What Sulu was using was a retractable Katana and his moves were not fencing like.

I know that the writers wanted to give NuSulu a nod from the classic Sulu, but it’s more for nodding sake than being beneficial because this is not what he was doing.

A Captain Log Comic is a Good Idea, But why are they starting with Sulu? I thought they would start with Kirk. Also, I had heard that IDW was going to a Comic based on STAR TREK:TITAN. Is that happening or not?